This Spell Can't Last

by Isabel Sterling

  I try to nod, but I can’t move. Can breathe. Can’t think beyond the desperate need for air. The desperate desire to get out of this alive.

  “Great.” She wipes the last of the blood from my lips with her thumb and holds it up so I can see it soak into her skin. “Later, loser.”

  She turns and throws open the window, casting a final look my way as the pain of her power crescendos and tosses me into unconsciousness.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Where is she?”

  A shrill voice cuts through the fog and the darkness, and then there are hands on my arms. Shaking. Shoving. The world spins and I’m on my back, staring up at a halo of blue.

  Tori.

  “Where is she?” Tori demands again, fury reddening her chest and neck. She lets out a frustrated scream when I don’t immediately respond, pacing away from me. “You had one job. One! How did you screw this up?”

  While Tori continues to yell, kicking the bed over and over, Coral kneels beside me. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  Cautiously, I push myself into a seated position on the floor, testing the feel of my limbs, looking for any lingering signs of the Blood Witch’s magic. Everything is sore and aching, but I don’t think she can control me. She must be too far away. My hands tremble as I remember the pain that seared through me, the way she forced me to my knees.

  “She could have killed me.” My voice comes out small, and my eyes burn with the threat of tears. With that kind of power, she could have killed me right here in this apartment. And now she’s gone, and she hates me, and she can probably track me all the way to Salem and—“Where’s Veronica?” She has to know. I have to tell her that we’re not safe.

  “It’s okay, Hannah. I’m here.” Veronica’s voice comes from behind me. There are soft footsteps, then she’s kneeling beside Coral. “Where’s the Blood Witch, Han? How did she get out?”

  “What?” My voice breaks, and the tears finally make good on their threat and spill down my cheeks. “How can you even ask that? Don’t you even care that she hurt me?”

  “Of course I care.” But her words are harsh and bitter.

  “She shouldn’t have been able to escape,” Tori cuts in. “The binding cord should have left her powerless.”

  “Maybe her magic was too strong and wore through the spell?” Coral asks someone over my shoulder.

  “It doesn’t work like that,” Lexie says behind me. I turn and find her leaning against the open doorframe. “The cord is still in here somewhere.” She steps into the room, and it’s like the binding cord calls to her. She heads straight to the bed, checking the rumpled covers. When Lex kneels to look underneath it, I force myself to my feet.

  “Veronica, come on.” I keep my voice low and ask the air to carry my words to her. “We have to get out of here.” I edge toward the open door.

  Lexie grabs the two binding cords and slides them out for the others to see.

  “Now, V,” I say again. More urgently. I reach for her hand, but she yanks away.

  My girlfriend studies me, brow furrowing. “What did you do, Hannah?”

  Now everyone is looking at me. The room goes silent, and my worry sucks the warmth from the air until Veronica rips the element out of my control.

  Tori grabs one of the binding cords from Lexie. “What did you do?”

  I take in their expressions, shock and confusion and anger. Even Veronica. So, I do what I should have done when Tori first showed up at our hotel. I grab Veronica . . .

  And I run.

  Veronica stumbles after me, but she only makes it a few steps into the main room before she breaks my hold. I keep going, momentum and fear spurring me forward, but halfway across the room a gust of air slams into me, forcing me to stop.

  I turn and find Veronica standing among the Casters, her power turned against me. What little was left of my broken heart turns to dust and is blown away by Veronica’s wind.

  “How can you choose them over me?” I ask, giving voice to the betrayal pulsing where my heart used to be.

  “It’s not about sides, Hannah.” The wind behind me lessens. “We just want to know what happened. Right?” Veronica looks to the Casters, who nod.

  V makes it sound simple, but she doesn’t see the way Tori twists the binding cord in her hands. The way her knuckles turn white from the pressure.

  “The Blood Witch is leaving the city,” I say, backing away now that Veronica’s wind is gone. “She promised she won’t come back. It’s over. You’re safe.”

  “Oh.” Surprise colors Veronica’s single syllable, and the hard energy in her—anger or disappointment or embarrassment, I’m not sure—deflates.

  Coral adjusts her pink glasses. “That actually sounds—”

  “Kinda ideal,” Lexie finishes. She rests the binding cord on her desk. “You’re sure she won’t come back?”

  Tension I didn’t know I was carrying melts from my shoulders. “It was that or lose her magic. I’m pretty sure she won’t bother you again.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” Tori adjusts her hold on the binding cord and advances toward me. “You helped her escape, didn’t you? How do you know she’s not plotting to kill us right now?”

  “Come on, Tor,” Lexie cuts in. “This is good for us. We can keep developing the ritual in case she returns, but if she stays gone, we can get back to our lives.”

  “That’s not good enough!” Tori lunges forward and grabs my wrist with her free hand. “Where did she go?”

  “I don’t know!” I try to escape, but her grip is like iron. “She was scared! She doesn’t want to lose her magic.”

  “Tori, that’s enough. It’s over.” Lexie looks to Coral, who nods and adds, “The Elementals should leave. They have a bus to catch.”

  “I said no.” Tori reaches for her pocket and pulls out a thin glass vial filled with deep blue liquid. She throws it to the ground beside Veronica, Coral, and Lexie. Navy smoke plumes into the air.

  Veronica reacts fast, taking control of the wind and pushing the smoke away, but Coral collapses to the ground unconscious. For the first time, Veronica looks at Tori with fear.

  “Let her go.” Veronica raises her hand, reaching toward us as the apartment fills with the potential of her power.

  Tori loops the binding cord around my wrist. “Make me,” she says, and then several things happen all at once.

  I scream when Tori tightens the rope. It burns against my skin, and I lose contact with the elements. Lose the ability to sense Veronica’s power in the room. Lose track of everything that isn’t pain.

  Veronica squeezes her hands into fists and yanks them toward her. Heat explodes behind me. Tori whirls us around, and the entire kitchen is on fire. Vials of potions explode. The pages full of swirling symbols, Lexie’s notes for their potions and spells, burn away to ash.

  Tori screams again, an incoherent sound of fizzing rage. Smoke detectors go off, and Veronica snuffs the fire before it sets off the sprinklers, but the kitchen is already ruined beyond repair. And then Tori’s arm is around my throat, the binding cord still burning against my wrist.

  I’m thrown to the floor. The hard wood presses into my hips, my head bounces, and I see bright flashes at the edge of my vision. Then there’s pressure on my chest, and my world shrinks to the angry, scared girl with blue hair and tears running down her face.

  “You ruined everything,” she says, but the strength is gone. Tears shake her entire body as she slaps loose fists against my chest. “She was supposed to pay for what she did.”

  A vial appears in front of Tori’s face, and nimble brown fingers remove the cork from the top. A deep blue vapor rises into the air. Shock registers in Tori’s expression a moment before her eyes roll to the back of her head and she collapses on top of me.

  Lexie stoppers the vial and releases the binding cord from my
wrist, tossing it across the room. Veronica drags Tori’s body off mine, and then she’s there, brushing tears from my face. Smoothing my hair out of my eyes. Whispering reassurances that everything is going to be okay.

  But she’s wrong. Nothing will ever be okay again.

  Across the room, Lexie is waving a red potion under Coral’s nose, and Coral sits up with a gasp. It takes her a moment to reorient herself, but when she sees Veronica and me sitting on the floor, she hurries over.

  “Are you okay?” Coral adjust her glasses and glances at Tori, unconscious beside us. “I’m so sorry about all of this. I didn’t realize how out of control she was.”

  “We understood why she wanted protection from the Blood Witch,” Lexie adds. “But we never thought she’d get like this.” She gestures at the general state of the apartment. At me. “You should go. This mess is going to take a while to unravel.”

  “But we’ll get Tori some help.” Coral tucks a loose curl behind her ear. “Even if we can’t find a Caster therapist, she needs to talk to someone about losing her parents. This . . . isn’t healthy.” She helps me to my feet, and I suppress the no shit response burning in my throat.

  Lexie walks us out while Coral grabs a pillow to nestle under Tori’s head. At the door, Lexie pauses. “Look, it’s probably best if we forget this weekend ever happened. It’ll only make things worse if we tell anyone. Can I trust you to keep this between us?”

  Veronica is quick to nod, but I’m less sure.

  “What about the Blood Witch? Will you really leave her alone as long as she stays out of the city?” My question earns me another annoyed look from Veronica, but I’ve gone numb to her disappointment.

  “Unless she attacks us directly, I have no intention of looking for her.” Lexie opens the door for us. “Stay safe out there.”

  “Thanks,” Veronica says and steps into the hall. I’m close on her heels. “See you around?”

  “Honestly? I hope not.” Lexie offers a polite smile. “It’ll be better for everyone if we forget we ever met.”

  And then she closes the door, shutting us out of her life.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Despite the warm sun and crush of bodies around us, the journey back to Central Park leaves me cold. No matter how many times I try to rub warmth into my arms, I can’t shake the chill. Or the sense of dread hanging over me.

  After making me promise, for the millionth time, that I won’t say anything to my parents about what happened this weekend, Veronica finally returns my phone. There are dozens of texts from Gemma, first teasing me for running off with V, then increasing in panic as time wore on. It feels like days since the Blood Witch found me in the park, but somehow, it’s been less than two hours.

  HW: Sorry, Gem. Things with V have been . . . weird. We’ll be back to the buses soon.

  Her response is instant.

  GG: Please hurry. No one else has noticed yet, but we’re loading up soon.

  HW: We’ll be quick.

  I slip the phone into my pocket before she responds. Guilt tugs at my ribs. This weekend was so much worse than all my parents’ fears about sending me here. I can’t tell them anything. If I could scrub the memories out of my own head, I would.

  Even though the Blood Witch said she was leaving the city, I can’t stop looking for signs of her. She has my blood. Who knows how far she can track me.

  We follow the GPS on Veronica’s phone, but besides the robotic voice telling us where to turn, our journey is quiet. In the silence, I hear the echoing in my hollow chest, like putting my ear to a seashell. Veronica must not hear it, must not notice the way I won’t let her get too close, because she keeps puncturing the silence, interrupting attempts to convince myself that we can fix this.

  “Where do you think the you-know-what went?” she whispers when we pass a cluster of people selling cheaply made tourist T-shirts.

  I don’t answer, my brain too busy trying to find a version of the future where we’re still together. Where this weekend doesn’t ruin everything.

  “Do you think she’ll try to find us?”

  I don’t ask which she Veronica’s referring to. The Blood Witch? Tori? I bet Veronica is too busy mourning the loss of her new Caster besties to worry about the echoes of pain still circling my wrist.

  Not once does she say she’s sorry for dragging me into this mess. She never asks if I’m okay or if I need anything. Never apologizes for using her power to stop me from escaping. That cuts deeper than anything the other girls did to me. Worse even than the Blood Magic that forced me to my knees.

  With each block we travel, her obliviousness ripples through me and colors the memories of us in tints of blue and gray. Even our first kiss becomes altered, no longer the magical moment of sudden revelation I remember. It’s shifting, changing, becoming yet another instance where Veronica did what she wanted without stopping to ask if I wanted the same thing.

  Maybe . . . Maybe things would be different if there was a real apology. If she actually understood how much she hurt me. We could bury this weekend and pretend it never happened. Instead, she keeps talking and talking and talking, but she never says anything that matters.

  We finally make it to Central Park as our classmates are lining up to leave, just like Gemma warned. Ms. Wunderlin has a clipboard in one hand, checking off students as they climb onto the bus.

  “Do you think we’ll ever see them again?”

  Veronica’s question latches like a hook around my ribs and yanks me to a halt. Bitter words crawl up my throat. “If you miss them so much, stay here.”

  “Come on, Hannah.” She reaches for my hand. “Don’t be like that.”

  “Don’t be like what?” I tear my hand from hers. I feel my voice rising, my hurt and heartache preparing to detonate my life. “I’m so sick of you dismissing everything I say to you!”

  “I’m not,” she snaps back, voice rising to meet mine. But then she glances at our classmates in line for the bus. “Everyone’s staring. You’re causing a scene.”

  “Is that all you care about?” I glare at her, but she doesn’t back down. “You think I’m making a scene? Fine. I’ll make a scene!” My voice rises until everyone is definitely watching, even the teachers. “I am so sick of you putting everyone else ahead of me. You made this entire weekend about what you wanted, even when I told you I didn’t want to be involved. You hurt me, and you never even apologized.”

  “Yes, I did!”

  “Not in the ways that count!” Tears run freely down my face, and my throat threatens to close off my words. “I can’t keep doing this with you. I can’t keep saying yes just because you refuse to hear no.”

  Veronica’s emerald eyes sparkle in the sunlight. “What are you saying?” Her voice breaks.

  I don’t want to be the one to end things, but I’m only doing what Veronica is going to do when she leaves for college anyway. I’m just ripping the bandage off first. Every part of me screams to let it go, to forget what happened and move on, but I force the words out. “I think we should break up.”

  Glittering tears spill down her cheeks. “No. We can fix this. We can—”

  “I’m done, Veronica. I don’t want to be with you anymore.”

  “But—”

  “Miss Matthews?” Ms. Wunderlin calls to Veronica, her sympathetic gaze flicking over to me. “It’s time to get on the bus.” When Veronica doesn’t move, our teacher calls again. “Now, Veronica.” The chorus teacher doesn’t say anything to me, and I can’t tell if it’s because I’m not on her roster or if she can tell I need a second.

  Veronica swipes her hands across her cheeks and pivots on her heel when Ms. Wunderlin calls her name again. Our classmates are uncharacteristically silent as she skips the line instead of waiting her turn and storms onto the bus. I feel sick and hot and cold all at once.

  “Hannah?” There’s soft pressure on
my shoulder, a hand that flits away as fast as it lands. “Are you okay?”

  I turn and find Benton, the sun behind him casting his face in shadow. “How much did you hear?” I sniffle and wipe tears away.

  “Enough,” he says and holds his arms open.

  Choking sobs catch me off guard, and I collapse into Benton’s embrace. He hugs me tight and calls for someone to find Gemma. “I know it hurts,” he says, letting me use him like a shield to hide from the world. “But I promise it’ll get better.”

  He’s trying to comfort me, but I don’t see how he can be right. This isn’t fixable. Veronica hurt me in ways I can never forgive. She chose the side of strangers, used her magic to stop me from getting us both to safety. I should have known things would end like this the second she let me chase the Blood Witch alone. The second she invited Tori to our hotel even though she knew I wasn’t comfortable with seeing any of them again.

  “It’s not fair,” I mumble into Benton’s shirt, now soaked with my tears.

  “What’s not fair?”

  “That I loved her so much. That it could hurt this bad.”

  Benton doesn’t say anything to that, just hugs me tighter. Finally, he lets out a relieved sigh. “It’s going to be okay. Gemma’s here.” And then he’s passing me to my best friend. She’s carrying both of our backpacks, and her pale skin is bright with sunburn.

  The guilt only makes me cry harder.

  “I’m sorry,” I say when she draws me away from the buses so we can sit on a bench out of earshot. “I was supposed to wake you up before you got burnt and I—”

  “Shh, it’s okay. I’m here now.” Gemma brushes my tears away and scans my face. “What did Veronica do?”

  In fits and starts, I explain what little I can. But there isn’t much I can say without mentioning the Clans, and then everyone else is on the bus and Ms. Wunderlin is making us board. Gem holds tight to my hand as we look for a pair of seats. She squeezes hard when we pass Veronica, who’s sitting with What’s-Her-Face from cheerleading.